Rising and Shining
by shameless monkey
Summary: AU: Sasuke is in love with his straight best friend, Naruto Uzumaki. When a freezing Spring morning brings Sasuke to Naruto's doorstep, is this his lucky break or the worst situation imaginable? SasukexNaruto Yaoi : Please R&R!
1. Chapter 1

**Rising and Shining**

**by Shameless Monkey**

It is far too early to be alive.

The city has yet to completely remove itself from winter's grasp, and although the world at 6.30 is bright now, and the sun between the bright silver rain clouds is golden and streamy, the air is so chilling that Sasuke can feel his body shaking, and taste the bite of the wind within his very bones.

But he hadn't gone to school in two weeks, and so this morning, horrifically early, to make sure he is actually present (and doesn't get expelled), Itachi has brought him into school.

Unfortunately, Itachi's latest contract means that he starts work at 7.30, somewhere out west, and so he had pulled over on the side of the road and let Sasuke out a 15 minute walk away from his school, 2 hours too early.

And Sasuke feels like crawling up and dying.

Both he and Itachi are fairly nocturnal, and their pale complexions and the shadows under their eyes attest to this. But in some ways, Sasuke is more so than his brother, for while Itachi is able to stay awake all day, during the day, he is not. Sasuke sleeps most deeply when the sunlight is streaming in to his room in muted dusty shafts through the curtains, and the hum of the vibrantly awake world rocks him gently into oblivion, and naturally, being out of bed so early is nothing short of hell.

Briefly he deliberates about going up to school, but he knows it will not open for another good hour or two, when the caretaker arrives, and in the meantime it is just as cold as the streets. Wondering where else he can go, he realises that Naruto lives in this part of the city, not 30 minutes away.

But… Naruto is, in himself, a complicated issue. Over the past few months, they've drifted apart, and it kills Sasuke that it's happened, even as he knows that he's the one doing all the pushing. The problem is that he can't think of anything else to do. Naruto Uzumaki is his best friend. The self-proclaimed Genius Joker King of Konoha High. The one person who Sasuke is constantly aware of, even when he isn't there. His… crush.

It had sprung him, the way he feels about Naruto. Mostly he'd assumed that he hadn't met the right girl, but then all of a sudden, something inside of him changed, and Naruto had begun to play crazy games with his emotions, just by being near him.

Initially it had been easy to control the butterflies in his stomach, the heat that tried to flood to his cheeks, but it had gotten to a stage where he was dizzy just being close to his friend, because the urge to lean over and press his lips to the blonde's was overwhelming, and the fact that Naruto has been wooing a girl they know for years makes it clear to Sasuke that his friend doesn't swing that way, so he had decided to distance them. Just as a precaution.

It had been hard (Naruto calling him and emailing him and texting him and wanting to know what he'd done wrong while Sasuke's heart sort of ached in his chest), but it had been for the best; now, on this not-spring undead morning, Sasuke feels up to facing Naruto again, his emotions back under control.

(Or at least... this is what he tells himself)

With one final look towards the road up to his school, Sasuke slings his schoolbag over one shoulder and heads into the city centre.

**End Chapter**

Random Alternate Universe (I just clicked to what that means lol) short I wrote today, which decided to unfurl in my head into a short story. That is, if anyone is interested in reading it? If you are, please say so in a review! I write to get better at it and yeah. Would you read what I have planned for Naruto and Sasuke if I kept this going?

Whatever the case, thank you for taking the time to read this :)

**Disclaimer: If I owned it, you'd be in for a wild time…**


	2. Chapter 2

**Rising and Shining**

**by Shameless Monkey**

**Chapter 2**

_I'll tell you this: No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn…_

When Jim Morrison's voice fills his bedroom, Naruto sighs, rolling over onto his back in bed, eyes still closed as he fumbles blindly for his alarm clock, meaning to press the snooze button to gain another few, precious minutes of sleep.

But then he hears a some nutter banging on his front door and lurches upright.

_The hell?_ He thinks, rubbing his eyes as he pads across his messy bedroom floor, heedlessly stepping onto various dishes and clothes and books that litter the small space between his bed and the door, moving out into the main room as the din subsides momentarily before starting up again full throttle. It's too early for this; for, well, _anyone_ to be awake, much less causing such a stir. Mulishly he goes over to the kitchen bar and puts on the kettle, and the knocking stops for a listening second.

"Naruto hurry up and open the door!" comes a clear tenor voice, and startled, Naruto drops the cup of instant ramen down onto the bench as he strides over to the door.

"_Sasuke_?" he says through the wood. "Is that you out there?" Barely daring to breathe Naruto feels his heart ache in his chest. Even though he knows Sasuke better than anyone, even he has trouble understanding the dark haired teen sometimes, and the way that the Uchiha had been freezing him out the last while had hurt more than anything. But he'd know that voice anywhere.

He opens the door to meet a familiar pair of angry gray eyes, and the reproach in them helps him to find his voice again.

"What're you _doing_ here?" he demands, even as he stands aside to let Sasuke in. "The hell are you in this part of town so early for at all?" he continues as Sasuke ignores him, throwing his bag down next to the couch and pulling off his school blazer. He doesn't reply, instead going to where Naruto's ramen sits on the bench and putting it back into a cupboard. "_What do you think you're playing at_!"

"Start the day with a _balanced_ breakfast dobe, not by inhaling styrofoam." Sasuke replies, opening the fridge and pulling out a carton of milk which he smells carefully before placing up on the bench, before delving into the cupboards again. "I bet you haven't been eating properly…"

The words _Since I left_ hang unspoken in the air for a moment before dissolving again, and Naruto, about to start an argument about the nutritional benefits of instant Ramen for breakfast, realises that Sasuke is deliberately smoke screening to avoid answering his questions.

So he closes the front door, letting the ramen slight drop, and goes over to the little kitchen as well, which is too small for the two of them, and obstructs Sasuke's little breakfast binge by standing in front of the fridge with his arms folded, staring at his best friend (ex-best friend?) until, eventually, the raven haired teen looks up at him.

Outside the air is freezing, and so in the sudden warmth of his flat, Sasuke's cheeks have tinged rosy with the temperature change. There is something like guilt in his eyes.

He watches Sasuke, and notices two things. Thing one is that in the months (_since he left_), Sasuke has grown taller than him, yet again. Only just, but it's enough that when Sasuke stands up, diving his hands down into his pockets, Naruto has to look up at him a fraction. Thing two is that the perpetual bags under his eyes have brewed and darkened, and - somehow - seem deeper. He looks like a tired soldier, and Naruto wonders what it is that drove him away in the first place. What exactly he's been fighting these past months.

And why he hadn't let Naruto fight it with him...

"I don't like these," he says instead, running his finger under his own eye in a crescent, and Sasuke grimaces, mumbles something under his breath that Naruto has to decipher for a second in his head, just to see if he heard properly.

"I've been a jerk," Sasuke had said. "I'm sorry."

Something's wrong. Terribly wrong. Naruto knows Sasuke better than Sasuke does himself, and Sasuke (or the Sasuke he knew) is far too pig-headed to apologise, least of all when he's been putting so much energy in the last 10 minutes into pretending that the last quarter of a year hasn't happened… and although he still wants to call his friend out about what the hell he was thinking, disappearing like that, he decides, for now, to let things be.

"Whatever. Just make sure you cook something yum, okay?" he says, and, for good measure, punches the other boy's shoulder gently. The relief in Sasuke's face makes Naruto want to say something more, but he quells his curiosity, yawning as he slides back into his room and pulls on a teeshirt and some jeans.

Sasuke has come back, and that's the most important thing.

**End Chapter**

**Wow. Thank you for reviewing/alerting/favouriting! That was the most exciting thing to get in my inbox :) More story to come! Hang tight :)  
Sorry about the Doors lyric. I just… love the Doors. Love them love them love them :D**

**Disclaimer: If I owned it, I would be a Japanese guy with mad drawing skills and a lot of money. Last I checked, I'm not. **

**Please review!**


End file.
